River Valley Community School District - Home of the Wolverines

At River Valley, transparency is important to the board and improved communications with the stakeholders has been established as one of the annual goals.  This communication is intended to provide you with the background for the board’s recent action of approving resolutions to share wrestling, girl’s golf, girl’s track, and boy’s track with Ridge View for this year. The majority of the information provided pertains to track as it has spurred the most attention. We will also be discussing sharing baseball in the coming months.  The motions are pending approval by Galva-Holstein and Schaller-Crestland districts. 

Any type of sharing between schools is a difficult discussion and decision and not taken lightly by the school board. As you can see from the following timeline, there have been years of discussion regarding the sharing of extra-curricular activities.  It has been a long-range goal of the board to explore and pursue sharing opportunities going back to 2004. In regard to track, this is actually the third time we voted to approve track with Ridge View.  The first time the board voted to share was done in January of 2017 with a board approval vote of 4-0.  We ended up not sharing that year because Ridge View needed both GH and SC boards to approve. Since then, the board wanted direction from the community, so they had a needs assessment survey done last fall from the Donavon Group.  To the side are the results of the survey, which were shared last year with the board and highlighted on our website.  There were 186 returned surveys, which according to the Donavan Group is an expected return amount and an overall effective representation of the community.

At the time of the assessment, track, baseball, football, girls golf were the concerns because of low participation numbers. From the assessment, the board saw that 72% of the respondents agreed to some degree that with low participation numbers in a sport we should look to share.  The other information shows that two districts (KP and Ridge View) were clearly identified as districts to consider in sharing. 

 

With the consistent low numbers for track we had conversations with both Ridge View and Kingsley-Pierson about sharing. Ridge View was interested and KP was not.  The board voted last year to share with Ridge View.  There were a couple of expectations shared in the meetings with Ridge View and KP, which were attended by our board president and vice president and superintendents. Those expectations expressed were to create a stable agreement where it continued into the future and districts wouldn’t jump in and out of sharing different sports.  The board would evaluate annually. We also knew that getting new uniforms with River Valley name included would not be feasible given the short turn around in year one.  The specifics would need time to get worked out for the following year.

At the September Board Retreat, the participants of track and wrestling were invited to speak about their experience.  They expressed how they felt awkward at first and concern over River Valley name not being included. They also shared how fun the overall experience was, it made them better, and they would want to do it again. We then scheduled a public forum at our October meeting where the board heard from three people. The board chose to table the decision to get more information on potential numbers. 

The results of that survey included ten girls indicating it didn’t matter where they went, two preferred track to be at Ridge View, and nine said they would prefer River Valley. We had eight boys say they preferred only to run at River Valley. It should be noted these numbers can change either way up until the day it actually starts.  For example, last year when we had a similar situation in baseball we had an initial sign up of 16 high school players (not including three 8^th  graders). Of those 16, we only had 11 high school players start the season.  We ended the season with eight high school players.

For the 2019 season, the board decided to send only girls as we had five for River Valley but kept the boys at River Valley because we had 21. Ridge View agreed to this, but they did express their intent to share both boys and girls for different reasons. Now with this year our boys looking like eight or fewer it only made sense to send both boys and girls to Ridge View. The board expressed concern about not committing to a long term sharing for track as the sharing may not be there long term if we keep moving in and out of sharing agreement per the expectations. Sharing can be a great experience for our students given the chance.

Also, the board encourages people who have questions or may not understand the board’s decision to contact me at the school and share your thoughts.  The board members invite healthy and productive conversation about this issue. 

Sharing Timeline

2004

• Administrator Meetings with Galva-Holstein to discuss sharing activities

2009

• Joint Board Meeting in May 18, 2009 (River Valley Commons)
• Joint Board Meeting June 17, 2009 (Kingsley Pierson Middle School Commons
• “Continue to explore and pursue sharing opportunities” Made as long range goal (2009-2014 by board)

2017

• January 18 - Motion was made by Stevenson and seconded by Krager to approve the athletic sharing agreement for track with Galva-Holstein (Ridge View) pending approval from the Galva-Holstein (Ridge View) district with the expectation of going for three years and revisiting it annually.  Motion carried 4-0. (Board Members Present – Krager, Stevenson, Goettsch, Knaack)

• February 20 - Motion was made by Knaack and seconded by Krager to cancel the proposal to share track with Ridge View.  Motion carried 5-0. (Ridge View did not have support of both districts)

• March 6 - sent letters to Kingsley Pierson and Galva-Holstein/Schaller-Crestland Superintendents requesting meeting between board presidents, vice presidents and superintendents

•  November 13 - 4-0 Voted to share wrestling with KP
  • Due to time we were not able to share with Ridge View as classifications were already set. (Board Members Present: Deeds, Krager, Goettsch, Knaack)

2018

• April 9 - Approved Wrestling with Ridge View 4-0 (Krager, Deeds, Goettsch, Knaack)
• October - Needs Assessment Survey (Results below)

2019

• January 16 – Public Forum on sharing baseball, girls track, and girls golf
  • Board Meeting - Voted 2-1 to share girls track with Ridge View (Board Members Present, Krager, Goettsch, Knaack)
  • Expectation to be ongoing agreement with annual review
  • It was understood that uniforms would not be made until the following year due to time.
  • Expectation for Ridge View/River Valley to be used in paper and during announcements
  • River Valley to be included in name

• February through May – Girls participated in track

• May – Invitation from Ridge View superintendent to meet and discuss how the sharing went and discuss potential future sharing needs such as boys track, baseball, and football. We expressed concern regarding lack of using River Valley in the name at beginning and it was agreed that would take place in the future

• August 12 – Superintendents and Athletic Directors from Ridge View and River Valley met to discuss other sharing possibilities

• September – Newsletter shared with district which indicated the board was going to be discussing sharing other sports

• September 12 - Board Retreat 
  • Wrestlers and Girls Track participants shared their experience. They shared overall experience was fun, they gained friends and would like to do it again. Concern with not having name recognition

• October 2 - President Knaack and Vice President Goettsch and Mr. Bisenius and Mr. Slater met with GH and SC presidents, vice presidents, superintendents and AD

• October 14 - Public Forum and Board Meeting
  • Board voted to share girls golf 4-0
  • Board voted to share wrestling 4-0
  • Board tabled decision to vote for girls and boys track
  • Members Present (Krager, Deeds, Knaack, Goettsch)

• October 28 – Special Meeting
  • Board voted 3-2 to share girl’s track and boy’s track for 19-20 school year per the minutes:
    • Share girl's track and boy's track with Galva-Holstein and Schaller-Crestland (Ridge View) with students having input on name/colors and contingent upon completion of programs, uniforms, name, color, and newspaper announcements with board approval of these items by February {Roll Call Vote: Goettsch (No) Krager (Yes) Deeds (Yes) Knaack (Yes) Stevenson (No)}